Seven detained for attack on Komnas HAM office
Rendi A. Witular and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Seven members of the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR) were in police custody on Friday in connection with the attack an Wardah Havidz, chairwoman of the Urban Poverty Consortium (UPC) and dozens of eviction victims at the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) here on Thursday.
The attack seriously injured 10 people, including a four-year- old boy, and left 37 others slightly injured.
Wardah and the victims of evictions conducted by the City Public Order Agency, were in the process of reporting the city administration for violating the ruling of the Central Jakarta District Court on March 21 in favor of the victims.
The court ordered the administration to stop evicting local residents without following proper procedure.
The attack conducted by FBR was the culmination of their threats against Wardah.
Earlier this month, armed with machetes and sticks, they chased away UPC activists who had been staging a rally against Governor Sutiyoso. They also threatened to beat Wardah.
Yet the police refused to take any action while Sutiyoso turned a blind eye toward the violence, and claimed he knew nothing about the group.
Head of the city police detective division, Sr. Comr. Bambamg Hendarso Danuri said on Friday that the police questioned nine members of FBR as suspects. But two of them were later released.
Separately, chairman of the Social Movement of Betawi Culture, H. Sofyan Mutardo, said that the FBR was an illegal Betawi organization, as they were not a member of the Betawi Forum; an authorized body that oversees all of Betawi's organization.
"We are greatly humiliated and enraged by their actions -- they have hurt the reputation of the Betawi people," said Sofyan, who was also a subdistrict chief of Srengseng Sawah, South Jakarta.
Sofyan added that the Forum urged FBR to discard the organization.
On Thursday, after the meeting with Komnas HAM executives, Wardah gave a speech before the eviction victims, with some 10 police officers guarding the compound. She had requested the police to close the gate, fearing of an attack by the FBR.
But police ignored her warning.
Minutes later, seven buses packed with FBR members arrived and they proceeded to viciously attack people inside the compound, according to eyewitnesses.
Some of them, wielding wooden sticks and swords, struck the people on their heads, while others kicked women and children.
"Where is Wardah?" they shouted at their cowering victims, who were trying to fend off the blows.
One of the attackers saw Wardah fall to the ground. He ran up to her and put his machete to her neck. Some Komnas HAM and security personnel rushed to her rescue.
"I could not believe that this violence could be taking place just after I had demanded that people give up such repugnant methods," Asmara Nababan, secretary general of Komnas HAM, said.
The FBR members then let Wardah go, and left the Komnas HAM grounds before a truckload of police arrived.